Often,âpé too, the sound falls between these letters, so that the foreign ear is left in doubt which to write.
That this is the case with the Delaware is evident from some of the more recent vocabularies where the _r_ is not infrequent. The following words, from the vocabulary in Major Denny's _Memoir_, illustrate this:--
Stone _seegriana_ Buffalo _serelea_ Beaver _thomagru_ Above _hoqrunog_, etc.
Even Mr. Lewis A. Morgan, who had considerable practice in writing the sounds of the Indian languages, inserts the _r_ in a number of pure Delaware words he collected in Kansas.[161]
Another difficulty presents itself in the sibilants. They are not always distinguished.
Mr. Horatio Hale writes me on this point: "In Minsi, and perhaps in all the Lenape dialects, the sound written _s_ is intermediate between _s_ and _th_ (the Greek _Θ_). This element is pronounced by placing the tongue and teeth in the position of the theta, and then endeavoring to utter _s_".
The guttural, represented in the Moravian vocabularies by _ch_, was softened by the English likewise to the _s_ sound, as it appears also to have been by the New Jersey tribes.[162]
In connection with dialectic variation, the interesting question arises as to the rapidity of change in language. With regard to the Lenape we are enabled to compare this for a period covering more than two centuries. To test it, I have arranged the subjoined table of words culled from three writers at about equidistant points in this period. Each wrote in the orthography of his own tongue, and this I have not altered. The words from Campanius are from the southern dialect, which preferred the _r_ to the _l_, and this substitution should be allowed for in a fair comparison.
COMPARISON OF THE DELAWARE AT INTERVALS DURING 210 YEARS.
_Campanius._ _Zeisberger_ _Whipple._ 1645. 1778. 1855. Swedish German English Orthography. Orthography. Orthography.
Man rhenus lenno lenno Woman âquaeo ochque h'que'i Father nωk nooch (my) nuuh Mother kahaess gahowes gaiez Head kwijl wil wil Hair mijrack milach milakh Ear hittaock w'hittawak (pl.) howitow Eye schinck w'ushgink tukque´ling Nose wiküwan w'ikiwan ouiki´o Mouth tωn w'doon ouitun Tongue hijrano w'ilano ouilano Tooth wippit w'epit ouipita Hand alænskan w'anach puck-alenge Foot zijt sit zit Heart chitto, kitte ktee (thy) huté House wickωmen wiquoam ouigwam Pipe hopockan hopenican haboca Sun chisogh gischuch kishu'h Star aranck alank alanq' Fire taenda tindey tundaih Water bij mbi bih Snow kuun guhn ku´no